


Slow Dancing

by reddies_eggos1711



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, M/M, OC's name is Jesse, Post S3, Slow Dancing, Wesse, Will deserves to be happy, Will x OC, and i love him, because fuck you, i am tagging, i have years worth of Wesse content and this is the first i post???, oh well, y'all i am turning wholesome this is not good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:21:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22342513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddies_eggos1711/pseuds/reddies_eggos1711
Summary: Will Byers attends his first high school dance at his new school with his friend. His friend who also happens to be his crush.  As the music echoes dully through the hall, all Will wants to do is slow dance with him.And he hates it.
Relationships: Will Byers/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Slow Dancing

**Author's Note:**

> y'all i am a proud mama to this OC so don't y'all be starting things. but yeh enjoy

The dance – the Winter Bash, as it was uncreatively named – was nothing like the Snowball. The Snowball, after all, was a middle school dance. This was high school.

People were wilder in high school. Chaperoning was stricter yet the punch bowl had still been spiked at least twice in the two hours since the dance started. There were students not-so-stealthily exchanging small white pills by the bathrooms. A gathering of sophomores had been kicked out for fighting. There was even a couple who got kicked out for public indecency after literally reaching third base on the dance floor.

People were just wilder in high school.

There were only two similarities between the Winter Bash and the Snowball. One being that Will was uncomfortable pretty much the whole time. The other being that Will wanted to dance, but not with those who actually asked him to dance.

No, just like at the Snowball, Will wanted to dance with a boy.

Will had thought – no, hoped – that when he moved schools, his idiotic crush on Mike would disappear and he would be _normal_. That he would see a girl and want to kiss her, date her, be her boyfriend.

Unfortunately for him, he realised almost immediately that none of that would come true. His crush on Mike refused to disappear, though he could safely admit that being away from the boy had caused it to fade into the background more. More disappointingly, Will didn’t look at girls and think about kissing them. Instead he looked at his lab partner and thought about kissing him. His lab partner who most certainly was not a girl.

The two had been paired up in the first week of school as lab partners and Will discovered his name was Jesse.

Jesse started talking to Will outside of science classes in the second and Will felt himself growing fonder of the boy.

Jesse became Will’s first and only friend in the coming weeks and Will realised that his fondness for the boy wasn’t purely friendly.

He hated it.

But Jesse was sweet. He was sweet and charismatic and charming and all the things Will wished he could be and therefore loved so much more in others. But more importantly, sometimes it was almost as if Jesse felt it too.

Sometimes there were moments. Just moments where they would both just _stare_ too long. Locked in a stare that was incredibly _not_ platonic and more like something that Mike and El shared after being apart for months. It felt different.

Jesse asked him to the school dance. _As friends_ he’d said. He made sure that was clear.

Jesse wasn’t like him and Will understood that. But it was annoying and he understood that just a little bit more.

Will had stopped pretending to enjoy the dance a while ago, finding it much safer to just observe and scowl at the happy people from the corner, a cup of water in his hand because he refused to touch the punch.

His eyes had been following Jesse as he moved about the hall, talking to people he knew or just generally having a good time, unlike Will.

Will watched him in his stupid suit that felt way too fancy for a school dance that Will had definitely made fun of before they arrived. He wouldn’t admit that he actually thought he looked amazing. He looked amazing and Will couldn’t stop noticing that. He couldn’t stop noticing how often Jesse ran his fingers through his hair – a sign he had once told Will was an anxious tick. He couldn’t stop noticing how his presence just seemed to brighten the conversation. Not that Will could hear what was happening, he just saw the people light up when he walked up to them. He couldn’t stop noticing how every time Jesse would look in Will’s direction, Will would immediately look away, afraid that if he actually stopped to look at those green death traps he’d be doomed to stare forever.

He hated it.

He hated most of the night and he was still cursing out his brother for making him go when he could’ve stayed home with El. He hated most of it. But mostly had hated the dancing. He hated watching the happy people dancing like he wanted to with the people they wanted to dance with. He hated the number of lonely girls who had approached him asking if he’d dance and getting carelessly declined as he found himself wishing it would be lonely boys instead. He hated that Jesse had asked him there as friends and he hated that society said it was wrong otherwise.

Will just hated that he couldn’t slow dance with the boy he liked.

He hated it.

Will sat himself down on one of the many free chairs in the dark where he remained, throwing his empty solo cup in the direction of the bin and narrowly missing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone pick up his cup and dispose of it properly before approaching him, presumably to lecture him about littering.

Will heard who it was before he saw and found himself holding his breath purely at his voice.

“I take it you’re not enjoying the dance too much, huh?” Jesse took a seat beside Will.

Will remained silent, though he released the breath he was holding, sounding a lot sadder than intended.

Jesse frowned. "What's wrong?"

Through gritted teeth and a brain screaming for him to stop, Will’s irrationality decided to tell him. "What's wrong? What's wrong is that society is a mess and I wish it would get it's shit together."

Jesse’s frown only deepened. He shuffled the chair closer, presumably to read Will’s emotion in the dark light. "What? Will, you're not making any sense."

"Yeah, well society doesn't make sense and I hate it."

"Well, I don't hate you for not making sense but it is making me worried.” Will noticed how Jesse’s voice got quieter. “Talk to me, Will. What's wrong?”

Will stared at him and in the dark lighting he saw his freckles dance with the curve of his cheeks as he smiled lightly – comfortingly. Will sighed. "I wanna dance with you."

Will looked away – out at the other people dancing – not wanting to see Jesse’s reaction. He hears the confusion in his voice instead.

"Yeah? Well, why don't we? Everyone else is dancing."

It breaks him inside. Just a little. "No... Jesse... Like... I wanna – I wanna slow dance with you. I wanna dance with you like Abby and Matt are dancing. Or how Mike and El dance. Or Max and Lucas –"

Jesse didn’t know Will’s friends that well despite hearing countless stories but it didn’t take a genius to see where Will was going with it.

"I wanna dance with you in a way that society won't allow. And I hate it."

There was a pause so long that Will, for his own sanity, had to look over to see if Jesse was even still there. He was. He was looking to the floor as though it had the answer to what to say next written on it. His voice was soft, almost afraid. "You hate that you wanna dance with me or that society says you can't?"

Will almost cried in relief that he wasn’t about to pulverise him to the ground after that revelation. He leant back in the plastic chair, staring up at the roof. "Both. All of it. Everything. I hate being the minority. And I hate that that's a bad thing. I just wanna dance with the boy I like without worrying about whether or not I'd live to do it again."

There was silence again and Will questions if maybe he’d said too much. But there was a slight rustling and, when Will looked back down, Jesse is standing beside him, holding out his hand.

"Stand."

There’s no point in hiding his confusion. "What?"

But Jesse didn’t acknowledge his question. Instead he very visibly rolled his eyes and grabbed Will’s hand regardless.

Will had a million and four questions at that point, but all the questions became invalid as his brain took over and he found himself lost in the sensation of Jesse’s oddly cool hand in his. Before Will could begin functioning again, he was dragged from the room and into the corridor.

There were five doors opposite the dance hall. Jesse went for the third. It opened without any restraint. Will didn’t fail to notice how loud the music was even outside the hall. He shot Jesse a confused glance.

“The music room’s lock is broken. It’s always open.” He gestured to the door before dragging Will inside and closing the door.

The music was still incredibly loud. It shifted to a slower song. _Lady In Red_. Will would recognise it anywhere.

He looked around the oddly empty room. "What are we doing here?"

He was suddenly more than aware that Jesse hadn’t let go of his hand yet. And that, apparently, he didn’t plan to. For again, instead of answering his question, Jesse took Will’s other hand and then guided them both to his shoulders – like Will had seen Mike do with El at the Snowball.

Will froze. That couldn’t have been what was happening, right? Jesse's hands moving to rest lightly on his waist proved that, indeed, it was.

The confusion etched in Will’s soul must have been apparent on his features too as Jesse smiled and offered him an explanation.

"I wanna slow dance with you too."

"Really?"

Jesse presses his forehead to Will's and the two began to sway to the music. "Really."

Will prayed that Jesse couldn’t hear how fast his heart was beating. Though he shouldn’t really mind.

Because as _Lady In Red_ echoes throughout the room, Will is slow dancing with him.

And he doesn’t hate it at all.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading


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